What is a Social and Emotional Learning Class?

When I first heard about SEL, I dismissed it as new-age-y. But after talking to Karen VanAusdal, Senior Director of Practice at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, I grew interested. She explained that SEL is a class like any other, with standards to aim for and grades. In an SEL class, kids exercise listening and communication skills—skills that would later enable them to work in teams and relate to others in meaningful ways.

To see these teachings in real time, I visited Dr. Lisa Hinshelwood’s class at Nueva School in Hillsborough, California. Hinshelwood encouraged students to express how they were feeling, on a scale from 1 to 10 that day, and to explain why they felt that way. This past week, I caught up with her to ask her a bit more about the program.